The Register's Editorial: Are we becoming numb to senseless killings?

National conversation needed on how we should deal with murders

10:53 PM,
Sep. 22, 2013

President Barack Obama speaks at a memorial service for the victims of the Washington Navy Yard shooting at Marine Barracks Washington Sunday, Sept. 22, 2013. A gunman killed 12 people in the Navy Yard on Monday, Sept. 16, 2013, before being fatally shot in a gun battle with law enforcement. The president and first lady Michelle Obama also visited with the victims' families. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Written by

The Register?s Editorial Board

There seemed to be a strange sense of business as usual last week after a gunman went on a rampage killing 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard.

President Barack Obama weighed in with some perfunctory remarks before transitioning to a condemnation of congressional Republicans. And there were predictable calls for more gun laws. But, with the exception of cries of the victims' grieving families and friends, the nation's response to the latest mass murders was oddly lacking in passion.

Maybe the explanation for this phenomenon lies in the frequency of these mass killings. The Navy Yard ...